FORGET THOSE CALORIES

Sunday, 17 April 2016

Hey guys!!

I know it's been awhile (massive understatement HAHA) but I feel like I should share this recipe because I hold a moral obligation to all fellow matcha lovers to share anything matcha related so here we are~

I had a craving for matcha subway-type cookies (read: soft and chewy) and I didn't know where I could go to get those, so I decided to try baking them! And I was SO happy after baking these because they tasted pretty much exactly like what I wanted - kinda like how you would imagine matcha cookies made by subway would taste like.

Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp matcha powder (you can add another 1 tsp if you like the matcha flavor to be stronger, but note that it'll be more bitter too)

3/4 cup white sugar (if you don't like it too sweet, you can reduce it a little)
113g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

4. Add in egg yolk, egg white, and vanilla extract to the butter sugar mixture and beat until combined

5. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined

It'll look like it's not gonna come together but it will!!!

6, Fold in the white chocolate chips

7. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and scoop tablespoons of cookie dough
8. Bake for about 8-10 minutes

sorry for the iphone pic, I didn't really manage to get nice photos of the cookies with my camera

Happy baking!! :-)

Sunday, 23 March 2014

Posted by Kejia:

Phew! That title was a long one. This crumb cake is crazily good. Trust me. The banana cake is so moist and crumbly you cannot get enough. You'll literally want to keep eating it! (Uh, no, I did not finish the entire cake *looks around sheepishly*) The streusel topping, oh man, don't even get me started on that. It gives the cake a slight crunch, and provides it with two strong flavors: chocolate and cinnamon. If you've never tried the combination of cinnamon and chocolate, you're really missing out! Go to your kitchen now and bake this cake! The two flavors complement each other so well, and neither overpowers the other in this recipe. Also, let's not forget the brown sugar in the streusel. It will give the cake a whole new depth of flavor, as compared to using white sugar.

But that's not even the best part. This streusel is layered in between the cake batter, and put on top of the cake batter again before it goes into the oven. When you unravel and cut the beautiful cake, you'll find that the streusel found in between the cake is all melty and gooey, while the streusel at the top turns crunchy and so, so, so irresistible. I just want to stuff my face into this cake and live my life being a banana/chocolate/cinnamon lady.

I took this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, and man, do I love her!!! I trust her and her recipes so much! I've made her funfetti cupcakes here last year, and boy were they pretty good! (They were pretty, and good). Do give her blog a visit as you can really learn a lot about all the different ingredients and techniques there. :-)

3. Using a mixer (paddle attachment), beat the butter on high speed till creamy, about 1 minute.

4. Switch the mixer to medium speed and beat in the sugar until combined.

5. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract. Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl!

6. Add the mashed banana and yogurt and turn the mixer on high and beat until creamy, about 1 minute.

7. Turn the mixer off and pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Turn the mixer on low and beat until combined. Do not overmix!

8. Make the streusel by combining the streusel ingredients in a bowl.

9. Layer half of the batter into the prepared baking pan. Top with half of the streusel. Repeat with the rest of the batter and streusel.

10. Bake for 40-50 minutes, covering the cake with aluminum foil after 25 minutes the prevent over-browning. Bake until the center is baked through, where a skewer inserted comes out clean.

11. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before cutting. Done! :-)

Give this banana cake (+ long string of streusel ingredients) a try! It is so easy to make as well! You will really not regret it. Like really. Just look at #datcrumb. Don't tell me you have ZERO inclinations to bake this. Love,Kejia

Monday, 17 March 2014

Posted by Nicole

Hello!
Last week, my friend (shoutout to you, bo!) linked me to this webpage called "50 unique and delicious cookies". Here is the link if you're interested: HERE! Every single one of them made my mouth water, maybe except for the cinnamon ones (I really not into anything cinnamon -.-). Anyway, I totally a cookie person, especially chocolate chip cookies. However I decided that I've experimented with too many chocolate related cookies, so I ventured the non-chocolate world. Hence, these Lemon Crinkle Cookies. Do you think they look absolutely pure and angelic??

They turned out to be a complete success, and I absolutely love it! It is zesty, light and not as heaty as those usual chocolate ones I make. The look of the cookies were amazing too, due to its "crinkle-ness". And you will be surprised because it is really easy to achieve this texture - icing sugar! I think the only difficulty is to make sure that you do not over-grate the lemon zest. I failed the last time because I wanted to get the most lemon zest out of the lemon. The lemon skin is what you want, not the hard white husk. So I was very careful this round and only managed to yield a single teaspoon from 2 lemons (I might have been too careful, but its better than getting your whole batch bitter!)

Crinkle effect :-)

I did not alter the recipe, so here it is. It is from the website called Whipperberry but created by this woman named Lauren Brennan and apparently, this recipe is award-winning (woah...). These are her actual words so all credits to her :)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte. For me, 9 mins if you want it chewy and 12 mins if you want it crunchier. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Happy baking!!

Saturday, 1 March 2014

By Nicole:

Probably the easiest pie to make ever!! Here are three reasons why its SO easy:

1) Its No-Bake. So YAY to those who do not own an oven. When I was making the pie, it felt as if I was simply assembling it.

2) There is less cleaning to do. Maybe except for the sticky toffee you'll have to clean

3) It tastes awesome regardless of what you do!

If you're into chocolate, toffee and bananas, this is truly the pie for you. I absolutely love that flavour! I first ate in back when I was in Bangkok as a kid and I have always wanted to try making one from scratch. Who knew? It turned out to be so easy!! Its so easy I can remember the recipe off the top of my head right now.

Directions:
Prepare the crust by crushing and rolling the digestive biscuits in a ziplock bag using a roll pin into fine crumbs. Mix in the butter in a large bowl. On a 9inch pie pan, press down the mixture on the bottom and sides to create the crust. Place pan into the freezer

Melt the chocolate blocks in a hot water bath. Put under heat if the chocolate fails to melt. Don't melt anything if you're using syrup directly bought from the supermarket (LOL). Once you've gotten your syrup/melted chocolate, pour it onto the crust to create the 2nd layer of the pie. Place pan into the freezer

The 3rd layer is the toffee. Melt butter and brown sugar together under medium heat. Remember to continuously stir if not it will burn. When the mixture starts bubbling vigourously, add the condensed milk. Stir and ensure it is properly mix well. Put on low heat for about 10mins or until it starts bubbling, stirring continuously. Pour toffee into the pan and place it back into the fridge.

Cut bananas into slices and lay them out in any arrangement you want, on top of the toffee. I arranged them in circles, starting from outside. Put it into the freezer.

Whip the cream until soft peaks start to form. Fold in the vanilla. Pour whipping cream onto the centre of the pie and use a spatula to spread the whipping cream out. Create a rough, casual look! Try not to cover all the bananas. My whipping cream layer was about 5-6 inches only.

Grate a bar of chocolate using a knife (or buy from the supermarket) and sprinkle over the whipping cream!

Done.

Happy Baking!! Remember to always store it properly because the bananas can turn black. Place in the chiller or freezer.

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Posted by Kejia:

I've been wanting to make fortune cookies with personalized notes for the longest time! This Chinese New Year, after being inspired by the amazing SORTED food, I've decided to make some. These fortune cookies are delicious. No, they're not thick and floury like those from Chinese restaurants. They're flavourful, crispy/crunchy (depending on how you like them, you can adjust the thickness when you spread them out), and super fun to eat. After cracking it open, remove the slip of paper, go "Awww!" after reading an extremely sweet note, and consume the delicious crunchy cookie. The great thing about these cookies is that you can write whatever you want inside! Motivational quotes, personalized messages, funny and lame messages (e.g. "Some fortune cookies contain no fortune.)...whatever you'd like! This makes a great gift for friends and family, and can bring a smile to anyone who's feeling down. (I mean, only if you write something funny or cheerful!)

SORTED food included chinese five spice in their recipe, but I used half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg instead. It gave the cookies a wonderful flavour, without being too overwhelming or tasteless. They are so simple to make. Please do try this out because you will not be disappointed! :-)

5. Spread circles 10cm across onto a baking sheet, keeping them as even as possible. If you'd like a crunchy cookie, make them slightly thicker. If you'd prefer a crispy cookie, make them thinner. The key to making a good cookie is to spread the batter as even as possible!

6. Bake for 5 minutes.

7. Remove the flat cookies from the oven and immediately place a message into the centre of each. Fold them in half and half again while still hot and leave to cool and become crispy. And that's all!

My mother's iron fingers that are immune to heat! (I had to use a paper towel to protect my hands) Take care when folding the hot cookies because they might burn you. Wear gloves!!

Remember not to put too many of them into the oven at once - this makes it very difficult to fold all of them when you remove them from the oven as they will start to cool and become hard. If, by any chance, your cookies turned hard before you got to fold them, simply pop them into the oven for 30-45 seconds and they should be softened again. All in all, these were really fun to make. Do give it a go! :-)

Love

Kejia

Sunday, 26 January 2014

Posted by Kejia:

Chinese New Year is arriving and I am so so excited!!! What's not to love about the crazy amount of food, the sinful treats, the meet-ups with family and friends, the decorations put up all over the house, and the red packet money!? Most of all, my favorite thing about CNY is definitely the food. Pineapple tarts, almond biscuits, butter cookies, pork jerky, love letter rolls, fried seaweed.... The list can go on forever.

In recent years, a new CNY goodie has emerged. I am referring to the amazing fried crabsticks. Crabsticks refer to imitation crabmeat, made with fish and flour and then processed heavily. (It's true, we all know it, but we just can't help ourselves!!!) They are usually fried (to save on time and cost), but the fried crabsticks I've tried are always so oily and leave a greasy feeling in the mouth as an aftertaste. Thus, I've decided to bake some crabsticks instead! They taste great, ever-so-salty, crunchy and light, but are drier than the fried crabsticks in the market. They're still as addictive as fried crabsticks, so no worries about that!

Points to note:

Baking these crabsticks are extremely time-consuming, because they take so long in the oven! Also because of the large amount of crabsticks to be baked.

Even though I say "large amount" of crabsticks... When you bake them, they magically shrink and you'd yield an even smaller amount of baked crabsticks. Thus to produce one normal cookie container of baked crabsticks you'll need about 5 packets of crabsticks (already $10.50 from the grocer). Fried crabsticks cost around $10-15 in the market!

Even though this was fun to make, I'd suggest you buy fried crabsticks instead to save on time! However, if you have the time and want to make your CNY experience a tad healthier (or you have an extremely large oven), do try this recipe! :-)

Ingredients:

5 packets of crabsticks

Pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC.

2. Unwrap the crabsticks from their individual plastic wrapping.

3. Using a scissors, cut each crabstick into one-thirds. Unroll them and cut to your desired size.

4. Place on a pan lined with baking paper. Sprinkle with pepper. (Or any other desired seasoning. Don't put salt though, as they are already salty on their own.)

5. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. They are done when they are golden brown.

I couldn't find any recipes for baked crabsticks, and now I know why. I took a really long time to finish making them! Alternatively, you could also deep fry the crabsticks, or shallow fry them in a pan. :-) It would be much faster!!! Do buy/make this CNY snack because it is really delicious and is one of my favorite!

Love,

Kejia

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

Posted by Kejia:

Hey... Listen... (can you already sense how guilt-ridden I am???)

I am SOSORRY for not putting up any new material in the last couple of weeks :-( University's been really tough(my first semester!) and the motivation to blog just seeped out of me. The good news is that I haven't stopped baking - I still love it with a passion and do so almost every other week. After reading a couple of food blogs, I've finally found the inspiration and motivation to do what I love most, to bake/cook and write about how amazing my food tastes (HAHA I'm kidding, I still fail quite a lot). I'm so excited(!!!) to give this platform another go with my dearest co-bloggers Claire and Nicole (read about us here!).

Today, I present to you the glorious-but-weird-sounding baked eggs in avocado and bacon. I've recently found a love for the wonder fruit avocado. It is so creamy, rich, filling, and relatively neutral in taste. It can go with almost every kind of flavor, ranging from sweet to salty. It acts as a moistener for certain foods like pancakes or pudding, and also makes great guacamole to go with nachos or toast. What I've never heard of before is baked avocado. (After a quick google search it turns out that there are MANY baked avocado recipes... Have I been living under a rock or what!?) Looking at the title of a post by White on Rice Couple, I went - "Huh? Baked eggs WITH avocado?", "Baked avocado????" It sounded really weird to me at the start, but when I put a spoonful of that creamy avocado + runny egg yolk + partially cooked egg white + crispy and salty bacon bits into my mouth, I was in avocado heaven. And egg heaven. And bacon heaven. All at the same time. The flavours are perfect when combined, and each of them comes through so well, producing a stunning dish. What I love most about this dish is that it is SO simple as well! Just 3 main ingredients and you're good to go. This is great for ketogenic dieters (low carb, high fat) but it also proves to be a great treat for anyone. ;-)

Delicious on its own, great on toast, I'll definitely be making this again.

2. Cut the avocado in half and remove the seed. If the hole looks too small to fit an egg, use a spoon to gently scoop out a little at a time until it matches the amount of egg.

3. With some tin foil, crumble it and make two ring shapes. Place the ring shapes onto the baking pan. Place the two halves of the avocado onto the ring shapes. The halves should be able to rest on the foil rings without tipping over.

3. Crack the eggs into two separate bowls.

4. Spoon an egg yolk into one half, being careful not to break the yolk. Then, using a small spoon, start spooning out the egg white a little at a time into the avo-hole till it's full. Sprinkle with bacon. Repeat for the other half.

5. Add pepper on top, and bake for about 12-15 minutes. Baking time depends on how well done you'd like your eggs to be. Keep checking on it!

6. Serve as desired (e.g. plain, on toast, with chips etc).

It really is as easy as that. You'd be surprised when you take your first bite. The great thing about this dish is that it has the ability to keep you full for the entire morning, making it a great breakfast dish. :-) Avocado lovers, do try this out and tell me how it goes!!! (You will not regret it) Have fun!

Mmmm I love a good runny yolk.

P/S. To tell if an avocado is ripe, take an avocado and hold it in the palm of your hand. It should be firm but will feel soft when your squeeze it with your palm. The colour should be dark (not green!), almost black.